Carpe Corpus: The Morganville Vampires, Book 6 (Morganville Vampires, #6)

by Rachel Caine

Read Rachel Caine's posts on the Penguin Blog

In the small college town of Morganville, vampires and humans lived in (relative) peace-until all the rules got rewritten when the evil vampire Bishop arrived, looking for the lost book of vampire secrets. He's kept a death grip on the town ever since. Now an underground resistance is brewing, and in order to contain it, Bishop must go to even greater lengths. He vows to obliterate the town and all its inhabitants-the living and the undead. Claire Danvers and her friends are the only ones who stand in his way. But even if they defeat Bishop, will the vampires ever be content to go back to the old rules, after having such a taste of power?

• ISBN10: 0451227190
• ISBN13: 9780451227195
• Publish Date: 2 June 2009 (first published 1 January 2009)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Penguin Books Australia
• Imprint: Signet
• Format: Paperback (US Mass Market)
• Pages: 256
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780451227195

Reviews

[Angie]

10/17/15: Rereading!!!

A lot has changed in Claire's life since the end of Lord of Misrule. For one, she's finally 17, and should be celebrating with her friends, but she's not. She also moved back in with her parents. She's now Bishop's errand girl, and is magically bound to do as he says, thanks to Myrnin's betrayal. I was so mad at him for that, but I also had this feeling that he had an ulterior motive and maybe even a plan. Maybe that's just denial caused by my love for him, or maybe not?

Tensions are super high in Morganville in this book, which was a vast improvement over the ho-hum nature of the previous book. Bishop has everyone, vampire and human, under his thumb but they're not all willing to lay down and take it. Even little Claire starts talking back and standing up for herself this time around. I was very impressed with her. She is woman, hear her roar! Of course, she still manages to get herself into maor trouble by not listening to those who know better than her.

There's a ton of plot progression in Carpe Corpus. Not only is there the climax to Bishops plot to overtake the town, but we get a lot more insight into that vampire disease: it's possible origin and cure! Myrnin also introduces us to a bizarre new character who plays a major role in the inner workings of Morganville. Seriously, she's a trip! Shane's dad is back, kind of. Claire and Shane's relationship! I'm so happy for them! Eve's psycho brother, and some new guy in town. Is he who he says he is? Plus plenty more! This was another action packed and fast paced addition to the series. While I'm excited to know what comes next, I'm in no rush. No cliffhanger this time!

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.

[Linda]

This was fast paced as well, I do wonder if they'll ever catch a break, though :)

[Jo]

The extremely strong and powerful vampire Mr Bishop has taken complete control of Morganville. Claire is forced to do his bidding because of a magical tattoo he has put on her, Michael has been bitten by him and is now under his control, Shane is locked up in prison with his Dad, and Eve wants nothing to do with Claire. Amelie has gone into hiding, and Myrnin has sided with Bishop. Things are pretty much screwed for Claire.

That is until she finds out that Amelie is gathering those who are still loyal to her underground, and that Myrnin and Michael are playing spies. With a plan in the works, moves are made – but on both sides. Bishop is not going to hand over control of Morganville without a fight, and plans to destroy all those who are against him, human and vamp alike. There’s a race against the clock with predicting and outmanoeuvring the opponent to be getting on with, and Claire’s ready to get her hands dirty.

I love Rachel Caine, and I love this series. And you know what? I LOVE Carpe Corpus!

Compared to the other novels in the series, there is a lot more build up to the action and fighting at the beginning of the book, but that doesn’t make this book any less amazing. It’s like a game of chess, but with a whole lot of thinking and planning before acting done, and it’s just awesome seeing all the characters we come to love (and hate, in Oliver’s case) trying o work together to come up with a way to defeat what seems the undefeatable, when there is very little power left in their hands.

When the action does kick in, though, it’s a classic Morganville adrenalin fest! I won’t spoil it for you, but plans can always go haywire, and when it comes to having no time to think but just act, anything can go wrong. You’ll seriously be reading with bated breath trying to work out what the outcome will be! It’s as exciting as ever!

Our favourite characters are back! Michael, Shane, Claire and Eve are downtrodden, but their personalities still shine through; Michael is still charming, Shane is still acts before he thinks, Claire is still practical, and Eve is still sarcastic. They’re all just a little desperate too. And there is a development with some of these characters. I won’t spoil it, but will say, Rachel; good job!

The one issue I have with this book is that a certain plot line was resolved at the very end of the book, almost like an afterthought. I’m probably wrong, but it just read like it was added in during revisions; a bit of drama at the end added to make it personal to Claire, and a scene inserted further on in the book, so Claire we knew certain characters. It wasn’t necessarily badly written, it’s just seemed a little odd to read when the main story of the book came to its end, and then there was this extra bit at the end of the book. It’s probably the link to the next book in the series, just not as cliff-hanger-y. It was just a little weird. I still loved the book though!

As a bonus, UK readers get an short story in their copy of the book from Shane’s point of view, about him buying a car. Pretty nifty!

[mitabird]

3.5 stars

Carpe Corpus was a decent read. It tied up a lot of loose ends from previous books. I look forward to the next addition of this series.